JP2006245981A - Communication equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide communication equipment capable of distributing or providing a user with facsimile received image information utilizing a Web service efficiently. <P>SOLUTION: The communication equipment is provided with a facsimile receiving function, and a Web service communication function for giving and receiving data between a Web server and itself through the network. Image information received by the facsimile receiving function is registered in Weblog. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a communication apparatus having a facsimile reception function and a Web service communication function for exchanging data with a Web server via a network.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, communication devices such as copy, fax, printer, and multi-function devices that support a network have a Web server function for setting a device from a personal computer device on the network by a browser, or received faxes. Some have a function of uploading an image to a Web server.

For example, in those disclosed in Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2, the received fax image is stored in a WWW server, and the user receives an e-mail in which the URL of the received fax image is described. You can download it to your computer. An electronic blackboard has also been devised as a device for registering images on a WWW server (see Patent Document 3).
JP-A-10-304128 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-341304 JP 2001-217777 A

  However, in such a conventional apparatus, the method of registering the information to be provided employs a unique method, which may be difficult to implement.

  SUMMARY An advantage of some aspects of the invention is that it provides a communication apparatus capable of efficiently distributing or providing facsimile reception image information to a user using a Web service.

  The present invention registers image information received by a facsimile reception function in a Weblog in a communication apparatus having a facsimile reception function and a Web service communication function for exchanging data with a Web server via a network. It is what I did.

  In the reception operation of the facsimile reception function, if an individual destination is designated, the received image information is registered in the Web log of the network address registered in advance for each destination user.

  Further, the communication history information is registered in the Weblog.

  The communication history information is managed for each registered user.

  Furthermore, device management information is registered in the Weblog.

  Therefore, according to the present invention, it is possible to register received image information using an existing Weblog mechanism. Therefore, it is very easy to implement an application when providing or distributing received image information using a Web service. The effect is simple.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  FIG. 1 shows a network system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

  In the figure, a plurality of workstation devices WS1 to WSn, a WWW server device SW, a Weblog server device SB, and a network facsimile device FX are connected to the local area network LAN and the Internet is connected via a router device RT. Connected to. Therefore, the workstation apparatuses WS1 to WSn, the WWW server apparatus SW, the Weblog server apparatus SB, and the network facsimile apparatus FX can exchange data with other appropriate terminal apparatuses via the Internet.

  Here, the WWW server apparatus SW provides Web service communication. For example, the WWW server apparatus SW receives image information from the network facsimile apparatus FX, and uses the image information to another terminal apparatus using SOAP or the like. And other functions are provided.

  The weblog server device SB provides a so-called weblog web page, and accepts and stores information of a web page to be registered using a specific API. Further, the saved Web page can be provided to other devices by Web service communication in the same manner as the WWW server device SW.

  The workstation devices WS1 to WSn include facsimile application software for creating and displaying facsimile image information, and various software (Web service communication program for exchanging various data via the local area network LAN). Various programs such as a web browser) have been introduced and are used by specific users. Here, the specific user may be one or a plurality of users.

  The network facsimile apparatus FX has an e-mail processing function for exchanging image information and various reports as e-mails, a Web service communication function for registering image information and various reports in the WWW server apparatus SW and the Weblog server apparatus SB, Also, a transmission function is provided for connecting to an analog public network PSTN and performing image information transmission according to a group 3 facsimile transmission procedure using the public network as a transmission path. In particular, in order to provide a Web service interface, an XML parser that analyzes XML data and a SOAP protocol are implemented.

  FIG. 2 shows a configuration example of the network facsimile apparatus FX.

  In the figure, a system control unit 1 performs various control processes such as a control process of each part of the network facsimile apparatus FX and a facsimile transmission control procedure process. The system memory 2 is executed by the system control unit 1. The control processing program and various data necessary for executing the processing program are stored, and the work area of the system control unit 1 is configured. The parameter memory 3 is unique to the network facsimile apparatus FX. The clock circuit 4 outputs current time information.

  The scanner 5 is for reading a document image at a predetermined resolution, the plotter 6 is for recording and outputting an image at a predetermined resolution, and the operation display unit 7 operates the network facsimile apparatus FX. It consists of various operation keys and various displays.

  The encoding / decoding unit 8 encodes and compresses the image signal, and also decodes the encoded and compressed image information into the original image signal. The image storage device 9 performs encoding and compression. This is for storing a large number of image information in the selected state.

  The group 3 facsimile modem 10 is for realizing the modem function of the group 3 facsimile, and is a low-speed modem function (V.21 modem) for exchanging transmission procedure signals, and mainly for exchanging image information. A high-speed modem function (V.17 modem, V.34 modem, V.29 modem, V.27ter modem, etc.) is provided.

  The network control apparatus 11 is for connecting the network facsimile apparatus FX to the analog public line network PSTN, and has an automatic outgoing / incoming function.

  The local area network interface circuit 12 is for connecting the network facsimile apparatus FX to the local area network LAN, and the local area network transmission control unit 13 is connected to other data terminal apparatuses via the local area network LAN. It is for executing communication control processing of various predetermined protocol suites for exchanging various data between the two.

  The system control unit 1, system memory 2, parameter memory 3, clock circuit 4, scanner 5, plotter 6, operation display unit 7, encoding / decoding unit 8, image storage device 9, group 3 facsimile modem 10, network The control device 11 and the local area network transmission control unit 13 are connected to an internal bus 14, and data exchange between these elements is mainly performed via the internal bus 14.

  Data exchange between the network control device 11 and the group 3 facsimile modem 10 is performed directly.

  Here, in the present embodiment, basically, data exchange between terminals connected to the local area network LAN is a transmission protocol up to a transport layer called TCP / IP, and more. This is performed by applying a combination with a higher layer communication protocol (so-called protocol suite). For example, in the exchange of e-mail data, a communication protocol called SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is applied as an upper layer communication protocol.

  Further, as a protocol applied to each mail terminal device SM for confirmation of receiving or obtaining an e-mail addressed to the user, a so-called POP (Post Office Protocol) can be applied.

  Further, communication protocols such as TCP / IP, SMTP, POP, and data format and data structure of e-mail are defined by RFC documents issued from IETF. For example, RFC is defined as RFC793, IP is defined as RFC793, SMTP is defined as RFC821, and e-mail formats are defined in RFC822, RFC1521, and RFC1522 (MIME (Multipurpose Mail Extension) format).

  Here, Weblog will be described.

  Weblog is a technology that has been developed mainly in the United States, and a major Internet provider has started providing a service in Japan, and its spread has exploded explosively. The Weblog can be updated more easily than a conventional Web page, and has a function of linking with other Weblogs, thereby providing a new means of communication on the Internet.

  Weblogs are often used as personal diaries, but their use is not limited to diaries. For example, if a fax image received by a device is registered in the Weblog, it is very convenient because a fax received on a specific day can be easily found.

  Also, since Weblog is an open system, it is superior in that it can be used simply by installing a general Weblog hosting application, compared to a system that installs dedicated server software. In an environment where a Weblog has already been deployed in a company, it is desirable that a network facsimile apparatus FX such as the network facsimile apparatus FX can cooperate with the Weblog, particularly in the sense that the apparatus and the Web system are easily linked.

  In this embodiment, a Weblog hosting tool is mounted on the Weblog server device SB, and image information, communication history information, system information, etc. can be added as an article from the network facsimile machine FX using this Weblog hosting tool. Yes. For the addition of such articles, the weblog hosting tool usually has a web page as an interface for adding articles. However, since it is not possible to add articles by operating the Web browser directly from the network facsimile apparatus FX, the XML-RPC API (for example, http://lowlife.jp/cgi-bin/moin) prepared by the Weblog tool is available. (See .cgi / XmlRpc etc.) to add Weblog Web pages.

  With the above configuration, in this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 3, first, when the network facsimile apparatus FX is called from any facsimile apparatus and receives image information, the received facsimile image information is converted into general-purpose information such as TIFF. The image file is uploaded to the WWW server SW.

  Next, the network facsimile apparatus FX registers a new article to the Weblog server apparatus SB in order to register the Weblog. Registration is performed by the XML-RPC API described above. FIG. 4 shows an example of XML data transmitted from the network facsimile apparatus FX to the Weblog system of the Weblog server apparatus SB in accordance with the XML-RPC API specification.

  This XML data is transmitted to the Weblog server by the HTTP GET method.

  FIG. 5 shows an example of a screen when an article registered in the Weblog is displayed by, for example, a Web browser installed in the workstation device WS1. As shown in the figure, it is possible to notify that the fax has been received, and to display a link to a URL where the received image can be downloaded and the total number of pages of the image.

  Some Weblog hosting tools can register articles in categories. In that case, for example, registration may be made in a category of “reception fax”.

  Incidentally, the network facsimile apparatus FX stores the correspondence among the sub address, the user code, and the Weblog address as shown in FIG. Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 5B, the correspondence between the sub address, the user name, the password, and the Weblog address is stored.

  These pieces of information are registered in advance by the user or the like, and are stored in the parameter memory 3, for example.

  Using this information, when a fax is received, processing can be changed depending on whether a sub-address is specified. An example of the operation is shown in FIG.

  If a sub-address is specified when a fax is received (process 101) (the result of determination 102 is YES), the table shown in FIG. 6A or FIG. 6B is searched and the Weblog corresponding to the user is searched. A destination address to be registered in the server device SB is acquired (processing 103). Subsequently, the received facsimile image information is registered in the Weblog server device SB corresponding to the user (processing 104).

  On the other hand, if the sub address is not specified (when the result of determination 102 is NO), the reception is performed at the registered address of the specified Weblog server device SB set in advance in the network facsimile machine FX, as in the above-described embodiment. The registered facsimile image information is registered (process 105).

  Next, a case where communication management information is registered in the Weblog server device SB will be described. In this case, for example, an XML-RPC request as shown in FIGS. 8, 9 and 10 is transmitted to the Weblog server device SB.

  The network facsimile apparatus FX formats the communication management information stored therein into a data format to be stored in the XML-RPC request as shown in FIGS. 8, 9 and 10, and the Weblog server apparatus SB Issue an HTTP GET command.

  This processing is preferably executed at a fixed time set in the system. For example, if the process is executed every day at 11:59 pm, the communication management information for the day can be collectively registered in the Weblog.

  FIG. 11A shows a display example when the communication management information registered in the Weblog server device SB is displayed by, for example, a Web browser installed in the workstation device WS1.

  In this case, for example, the communication management information can be filtered for each user. For example, referring to the user tables shown in FIGS. 6A and 6B, the record relating to a specific user in the communication management information stored in the network facsimile apparatus FX is registered in the Web log of the corresponding user. be able to.

  FIG. 11B shows a display example when the communication management information related to the user “user02” is registered in the Weblog server device SB and the content is displayed by the Web browser installed in the workstation device WS1.

  FIG. 12 illustrates a case where device management information is registered in the Weblog server device SB. In this case, for example, an XML-RPC request as shown in FIG. 12 is transmitted to the Weblog server device SB.

  The network facsimile apparatus FX formats the device management information stored therein into a data format stored in the XML-RPC request shown in FIG. 12, and issues an HTTP GET command to the Weblog server apparatus SB.

  Here, the device management information refers to information such as information on errors that have occurred in printers, copies, faxes, etc., paper jams that have occurred in devices, and communication failures due to power failure.

  This processing is preferably executed at a fixed time set in the system. For example, if the process is executed at 11:59 pm, the device management information for the day can be registered in the Weblog.

  FIG. 13 shows a display example when the device management information registered in the Weblog server device SB is displayed by a Web browser installed in the workstation device WS1.

  As described above, in this embodiment, since the facsimile image information received by the network facsimile apparatus FX is registered in the Web log, the labor for managing the received facsimile image information can be greatly simplified. it can.

  When facsimile image information to be distributed to a user registered in the device is received, the received facsimile image information is registered in the Web log assigned to the target user, and the user always refers to one Web page. Therefore, user convenience is improved.

  Further, it is convenient because communication history information other than the received image information can be registered in the Weblog. For example, when communication management information for a certain day is registered in the Weblog, the communication management information of the device can be referred like a diary, which is very convenient for the management user.

  Further, since a Weblog page is provided for each user and a communication history is registered for each user, each user can refer only to a communication history related to him / her, which is very convenient.

  In addition, since error information generated in the device is registered in the Weblog, it is convenient to refer to events occurring in the device (occurrence of failure, error, etc.) like a diary.

  In the above-described embodiment, the WWW server device SW and the Weblog server device SB are provided as different devices. However, these can be physically realized by a single device. In addition, the network facsimile apparatus FX can be provided with the functions of the WWW server apparatus SW and the Weblog server apparatus SB.

  In addition, the present invention can be similarly applied to communication apparatuses other than the network facsimile apparatus FX of the above-described embodiment.

1 is a block diagram showing a network system according to an embodiment of the present invention. The block diagram which showed the structural example of the network facsimile apparatus FX. The time chart which showed an example of the sequence at the time of the network facsimile apparatus FX registering information with WWW server apparatus SW and Weblog server apparatus SB. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of XML data transmitted from the network facsimile apparatus FX to the Weblog system of the Weblog server apparatus SB according to the XML-RPC API specification. Schematic which showed an example of the screen at the time of displaying the article registered into Weblog, for example with the Web browser mounted in workstation apparatus WS1. Schematic which showed an example of the table which memorize | stored the correspondence of a subaddress, a user code, and a Weblog address, and the table which memorize | stored the correspondence of a subaddress, a user name, a password, and a Weblog address. The flowchart which showed an example of the process at the time of the facsimile reception of the network facsimile apparatus FX. Schematic diagram illustrating an example of an XML-RPC request when registering communication management information in the Weblog server device SB (continued). Schematic showing an example of an XML-RPC request when registering communication management information in the Weblog server device SB (continuation of FIG. 8; continued). Schematic diagram illustrating an example of an XML-RPC request when registering communication management information in the Weblog server device SB (continuation of FIG. 9). For example, the communication management information registered in the Weblog server device SB is registered in the Weblog server device SB as a display example when the Web browser installed in the workstation device WS1 is displayed and the communication management information related to the user “user02”. FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing a display example when the content is displayed by a Web browser installed in the workstation device WS1. Schematic which showed an example of the XML-RPC request in the case of registering device management information in the Weblog server device SB. Schematic which showed the example of a display at the time of displaying the apparatus management information registered into Weblog server apparatus SB with the Web browser mounted in workstation apparatus WS1.

Explanation of symbols

FX network facsimile device SB Weblog server device SW WWW server device

Claims (5)

In a communication apparatus having a facsimile reception function and a Web service communication function for exchanging data with a Web server via a network,
A communication apparatus for registering image information received by a facsimile reception function in a Web log.   2. The received image information is registered in a Web log of a network address registered in advance for each destination user when an individual destination is designated during the reception operation of the facsimile reception function. Communication equipment.   Furthermore, communication history information is registered into Weblog, The communication apparatus of Claim 1 or Claim 2 characterized by the above-mentioned.   The communication apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the communication history information is managed for each registered user.   5. The communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the management information of the device is registered in the Weblog.

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